What is the dumbest order you ever read?

Nurses General Nursing

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I thought I had seen some AH orders but yesterday took the all time win! I had a 97 year old man admitted from ER with impaction and the order said---- "Give oil retention enema and have pt. hold for one hour." I am LMAO as I am thinking "OK where am I going to find a cork.:roll :chuckle

Sleepyeyes

1,244 Posts

My all-time favorite was printed on the MAR at an LTC, for a 97-yo woman:

"Mammogram q month"

of course, that was supposed to read "HEMOgram q month"--Dr. corrected it when we asked him if that is what he really ordered :chuckle

emily_mom

1,024 Posts

This wasn't an order, but on a health history we received from another hospital "Pt has 80 children, all of whom present with the pt today." Um....oww? It was supposed to be 8, but could you imagine that doctor's office with 83 people in it? Had to laugh...

Read an H & P on a lady that said she was S/P hysto, choley appy and TURP. ????? :eek:

I'd like to see that xray...

Then there was the ER admit that was admitted "FUO"......H & P read "Presents afebrile".... 'Course this pt had pneumonia and DID have a fever but was there any order for Tylenol???? nooooooooo

Merry1

40 Posts

I was reading a pt hx the other day and the MD put in the health hx that pt smoked 2-3 CARTONS of cigaretts a day. Now I don't know about you but what a mental picture it gave me. How did this person do it?? Smoked 10 ciggies at a time??:D Just cracked me up, still makes me chuckle at the thought, my friends tell me that I am easy to amuse:D ! Secrete to happiness in life, let stupid things amuse you:D !

Furball

646 Posts

A u/a on an anuric renal pt......

lindalee

61 Posts

Two orders come immediately to mind. LOL

Condom catheter on pt who had had his member removed for a cancer. Ice to area for 24 years to a one year old who had had a circumcision.

deespoohbear

992 Posts

Originally posted by emily_mom

This wasn't an order, but on a health history we received from another hospital "Pt has 80 children, all of whom present with the pt today." Um....oww? It was supposed to be 8, but could you imagine that doctor's office with 83 people in it? Had to laugh...

Have you ever dealt with an Amish family? Some of them have 15 kids and they do all show up at once to visit! Of course with all the grandchildren. There have been obits in are local paper that says the deceased have 140 something grandchildren!! 15 children, I would have to be locked up permanently. (Or my husband would be :D ).

indynurse

101 Posts

Two orders come to mind (both written by the same brilliant genius at that).

1. Put soap in soap dispenser in pt bathroom.

and the other, written about a week later...

2. Transfer pt to post-partum room with a window.

My favorite co-worker at that hospital had both patients. For the first order she charted soap dispenser in pt bathroom 3/4 full and in working order as it was when this nurse washed her hands at pt's sink @XXXXhrs. (The time she washed her hands was about 30 minutes before Dr. Brilliant wrote the order and the time she charted the entry in the computer was 2 minutes after the order was written.)

When she received the pt for which the second order was written she charted that the pt was transferred to rm 3638 with the sun shining brightly through the windows.

BTW, all of the the post-partum rooms at that hospital had windows.

fab4fan

1,173 Posts

Tylenol 650mg IV q4h prn

ptnurse

185 Posts

I had an intern one day just driving me crazy. Could not make up her mind. Wrote a few orders for the patient and then she would change her mind. I sent the third set of orders to the ICU pharmacy across the hall without looking at them first. (Why bother, she was going to change them.) The pharmacist called in a few minutes and asked me to tell the intern that the ICU pharmacy did not do: "Pepto-Bismol stat"

deespoohbear

992 Posts

Place fan in pt's room. (Just ask me for crying out loud!!) :(

The other order from the same doc was just as silly. At our hospitals, our docs have a color assigned to them. It is a piece of tape we put on the charts instead of the doctor's name. Dr. S is dk pink, Dr. L is green and so on. One time the wrong color tape got on the chart for Dr. Z and he actually wrote: Please place my color tape on this chart. Give me a break. Just tell the unit secretary to change the tape. :(

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